The Attrition War, Cardinals
Part of a continuing series, follow-ups to the initial post detailing the Mariners history over the same period.
Do the Mariners, in comparison to other teams, suffer a higher rate of injury to their pitching prospects than other teams? Here, I look at the Cardinals.
Please note that I am trying to refrain from drawing any conclusions or making any comparisons, guessing at causes or relationships, or doing anything but presenting straight data. When the series is finished, I’ll have a summary post where I talk about those things.
In every organization so far there have been are several cases where those stats seem to ignore something important. I’m going at attempt to address those in the summary post, as well as methodology and thoughts on future research directions.
The Cardinals had 36 pitchers who appeared at least once on a Baseball America Top Ten prospect list between 1995-2004.
Readers are, as always, encouraged to to add/correct information here in the comments or by email. Citations are particularly welcome.
Of those, pitchers who injured their elbow and required surgery: 4 (Ankiel, Caple, Morris, Narveson)
Of those, pitchers who injured their shoulders and required surgery: 5 (Benes, Hawksworth, Journell, Parrott, Stechschulte)
(generally, I’m looking for major surgeries that require ~1y off)
Detailed data:
Rick Ankiel, 1/1998, 2/1998, 1/2000
Ligament replacement surgery on his elbow in July 2003 followed seasons of trouble.
Corey Avrard, 6/1995
Unknown, was out of the org after 2000.
Manuel Aybar, 5/1997
Traded to the Rockies in November 1999 as part of the Darryl Kile deal.
Brian Barber, 2/1995, 10/1996
Left as a free agent after the 1997 season.
Alan Benes, 1/1995, 1/1996
Missed 1998, 1999… also, most of 2001. Left as a free agent after the 2001 season.
Mike Busby, 6/1996
Appeared with the Cardinals at times from 1996-1999, then disappeared in 2000. Unknown.
Chance Caple, 9/2000, 4/2001
Ligament replacement surgery, date unknown.
Kris Detmers, 9/1996
Last sighting was 1999 with the Memphis Redbirds.
Matt DeWitt, 10/1999
Traded to the Blue Jays in November 1999 as part of the Pat Hentgen deal.
John Frascatore, 3/1996
Traded to the Diamondbacks in March 1999 for Clint Sodowsky
Luther Hackman, 8/2000
Traded to the Padres in December 2002 for Brett Tomko.
Dan Haren, 7/2002, 1/2003
Traded to the Athletics in December 2004 as part of the Mark Mulder deal.
Blake Hawksworth, 5/2003, 1/2004
Labrum surgery in July 2004
Chad Hutchinson, 4/1999, 2/2000, 3/2001, 10/2002
Left to play football for the Dallas Cowboys in January of 2002.
Jose Jimenez, 8/1999
Traded to the Rockies in November 1999 as part of the Daryl Kile deal.
Tyler Johnson, 9/2003, 9/2004
Selected by the Athletics in the December 2004 Rule 5 draft (later returned)
Jimmy Journell, 1/2002, 2/2003, 4/2004
Labrum surgery in May 2004.
Curtis King, 10/1998
Signed a minor league deal with Cleveland in January 2000.
Scotty Layfield, 6/2002
Last seen pitching in Memphis in 2003, where he has shoulder soreness.
Braden Looper, 4/1997, 2/1998
Traded to the Marlins in December 1998 as part of the Edgar Renteria trade.
Eric Ludwick, 7/1997
Traded to the Athletics in July 1997 as part of the Mark McGwire trade.
T.J. Mathews, 4/1996
Traded to the Athletics in July 1997 as part of the Mark McGwire trade.
Matt Morris, 2/1996, 2/1997
Ligament replacement surgery.
Chris Narveson, 2/2002, 3/2003, 2/2004
Ligament replacement surgery in August 2001. Traded to the Rockies in August 2004 as part of the Larry Walker deal.
Rhett Parrott, 7/2003, 7/2004
Labrum surgery in July of 2003.
Josh Pearce, 10/2001, 3/2002
Had rotoator cuff problems but did not have surgery (or at least, did not miss a full year).
Clif Politte, 8/1998
Traded to the Phillies in November 1998 as part of the Ricky Bottalico/Garrett Stephenson deal.
Justin Pope, 4/2002, 4/2003
Traded to the Yankees in August 2003 as part of the Sterling Hitchcock deal.
Bud Smith, 1/2001
Traded to the Phillies in July 2002 as part of the Scott Rolen trade. He almost immediately tore his labrum, requiring surgery.
Gene Stechschulte, 8/2001
Labrum surgery in March 2003. Allowed to leave as a free agent after that season.
Blake Stein, 9/1997
Trade to the Athletics in July 1997 as part of the Mark McGwire trade.
Nick Stocks, 5/2000, 5/2001
Possible injury: missed almost all of 2002. (Also had ligament replacement surgery before being drafted). 2005 status unclear.
Bret Wagner, 3/1995, 5/1996
Traded to the Athletics in January 1996 as part of the Todd Stottlemyre deal
Adam Wainwright, 2/2002
Elbow strain in 2004 but no surgery.
Blake Williams, 6/2001
Selected by the Reds in the Rule 5 draft in December of 2002. Later returned to the Cardinals.
Jay Witasick, 8/1995
Traded to the Athletics in January 1996 as part of the Todd Stottlemyre deal
Comments
5 Responses to “The Attrition War, Cardinals”
“Bud Smith, 1/2001
Traded to the Cardinals in July 2002 as part of the Scott Rolen trade. He almost immediately tore his labrum, requiring surgery.”
Derek, Bud Smith was traded to the Phillies as part of the Rolen deal.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/s/smithbu02.shtml
My fault. Fixed.
So many of their pitchers seem to disappear off the radar at times. I wonder if the Cardinals use the same Black Hole that the Mariners used with Scott Spiezio.
what an excellent survey. the cards organization over the last decade has only produced one starting pitcher who stuck around for any length of time — matt morris. and he missed a season and a half with an arm injury shortly after coming up in 1997. stl has two top-100 BA prospects at triple a right now, anthony reyes and adam wainwright, both coming off injuries and pitching well.
looking forward to more in this series.
The “something important” with the Cardinals, in my opinion, is that the success rate (or lack thereof) is a testament to Walt Jocketty’s ability in trading away young pitchers for quality major league players — Garrett Stephenson notwithstanding.